Laborer was inadvertently included in Chaney search

A general laborer and property maintenance worker, Baeza was caught up in the manhunt for fugitive Ricardo Chaney in the moments immediately following Chaney's ambush of Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputy Ricky Del Fiorentino the morning of March 19.

Del Fiorentino and Chaney confronted each other on Park Drive in Cleone, where Del Fiorentino was shot with an assault-type rifle, the Sheriff's Office reported.

Baeza said he was stacking firewood on property adjacent to the site of the shooting when he heard the gunfire. Baeza said he at first hid behind a pile of wood then moved to some underbrush to call 911.

"It was really loud," he said.

"I heard someone say, 'Don't move' and then there were shots," Baeza said.

While on the phone with 911, Baeza said he saw a police car go by on Park Drive. He told the dispatcher that he saw the cruiser and that he was going to hide in a nearby pump house. He described to the dispatcher the clothes he was wearing so law enforcement could identify him as a bystander.

Baeza said he was told the dispatcher would call him back, but he never received a call. He said when he first heard somebody attempting to open the locked door of the pump house where he was hiding, they didn't identify themselves as police.

"I didn't know if it was the police or the bad guy," he said.

When the pump house door was forcibly opened, Baeza was facing several weapons. Officers handcuffed him and questioned him to determine if he was a second suspect or a witness. He was released within hours.